Tweet Summer in London is awash in festivals and outdoor parties, but there’s something quite special about Polo in the Park. The sport has real elegance, excitement and panache, and now it’s more family friendly than ever. (Scroll to the bottom for discount code for money off your tickets for the Friday or Sunday.) The organisers have teamed up with Sharky & George, the cool, fun children’s...

Tweet Over the years I’ve stayed at a wide range of hotels. Each time I’ve been female. As a result I can’t help but notice how some places get it right and some get it woefully wrong. There are simply some things that we ladies need when staying overnight. It’s not just a matter of convenience or luxury. It’s evidence that hotels don’t value their female guests (and the money...

Tweet As the revelations have filtered out about Germanwings flight 4U9525, crashed in the southern Alps, I’ve done what so many other travellers have done: imagined the scene inside the plane as it dropped inexorably in altitutude, the mountains looming large in the windows. I’ve thought about the families and friends of the passengers as well as the parents of Andreas Lubitz and what they must be...

Tweet I come from Texas, so really I’m supposed to know all about guns. But since I won that riflery award at summer camp age 12, my shooting prowess has largely been on the wane. Don’t get me wrong — I love shooting (I did say I’m from Texas, right?), but the opportunities to practice don’t come along that often. When my 16-year-old stepson received a voucher from his grandparents for...

TweetI’ve always loved Chinese New Year, even if we don’t always celebrate it in grand style. I also love walking through Chinatown in London whenever I’m in the West End. Compared with Chinatown in New York, which has taken over Little Italy and goes on for block and blocks, London’s Chinatown is basically one or maybe two streets. It’s tiny, really. But whenever I am on my way to...

TweetWe all love talking about the best places to take our families. Well, last week I had the opportunity to talk about the flip side: the worst places to take children. As it turns out, there are very few “terrible” places to take children, judging from the places mentioned by the other bloggers included in the piece, featured on Yahoo! Travel. It’s mostly down to bad timing — like at the...

TweetSometimes we love to chat with our kids when we fly or go out to eat while travelling. Other times, we’ll be deep into grown-up talk (the economy, house prices, pension plans) and the kids just need something fun to do that hasn’t been acquired at the App Store. My mother-in-law discovered this great little book from www.2littleboys.co.uk, called Something to keep you happy when the grown-ups are...

Tweet When we visited Fort Worth last August we went to some great places to eat. One of the most whimsical was Steel City Pops, which makes gourmet popsicles. Gourmet popsicles, right? Sounds a little precious — until you look at the list of flavours: Blackberry, Cranberry Orange, Hibiscus, Mango, Peanut Butter, Blueberry Cream, Avocado, Vanilla Bean, Pistachio…. I wanted to eat every one of them....

Tweet“Do you know what geocaching is?” I asked my 11-year-old, as we drove to Poleden Lacey. “You find things using a GPS. It’s boring,” she replied, staring out the window in the back seat. “How do you know? Have you done it before?” “I used a GPS once. It’s better if it’s just a map.” Ah, the enthusiasm of youth. After a wonderful Christmas break...

TweetI’ll be honest: I really deserve to fly business class. Not because I’m better than other people, but because I enjoy it so much. So much. If airlines understood the deep wellspring of pleasure I get from it, the Mariana Trench of joy, they would fly me everywhere in business simply because of the good it would bring the world. Everything from the early boarding to how they hang up your coat before...

Jennifer Howze, the Times's former Alpha Mummy blogger, is a journalist, blogger and co-founder of BritMums and BritMums Live. She has contributed to The Guardian, The Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Independent, Frommer's Budget Travel, and Travel+Leisure, among others.